Descript is a video and podcast editor in which you edit by editing the transcript, and it rations by media hours and AI credits, not by video minutes. Its pricing page (read 29 Sep 2026, USD per person) shows Hobbyist at $16 a month billed annually ($24 monthly) for 10 media hours and 400 AI credits, Creator at $24 ($35) for 30 hours and 800 credits, and Business at $50 ($65) for 40 hours and 1,500 credits. There is a Free plan. Creator is the cheapest per media hour; Hobbyist is enough for a few episodes a month.
Plans
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing, per month | What the page states | Derived cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hobbyist | $24 | $16 | 10 media hours/month; 400 AI credits/month | Not derivable |
| Creator | $35 | $24 | 30 media hours/month; 800 AI credits/month | Not derivable |
| Business | $65 | $50 | 40 media hours/month; 1500 AI credits/month | Not derivable |
| Free Free tier | $0 | $0 | 1 media hour; 100 AI credits one-time; watermark | Not derivable |
USD, list prices as shown on the vendor's pricing page (source), checked 29 Sept 2026. Promotional prices are shown separately and are never mixed into list prices. See the pricing tracker for every tool side by side and its method.
Cost per media hour
Our arithmetic on the page’s prices and allowances:
| Plan | Annual billing, per hour | Monthly billing, per hour | Export | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hobbyist | $1.60 | $2.40 | 1080p, no watermark | 1 person |
| Creator | $0.80 | $1.17 | 4K, no watermark | Team of up to 3, billed separately |
| Business | $1.25 | $1.63 | not stated in the text we read | Team of up to 5, billed separately |
What is counted
The FAQ says media hours track uploaded media files and media recorded in Descript, whether or not you transcribe them. AI credits track use of AI features such as the Underlord co-editor, Studio Sound, Green Screen, Eye Contact and AI-generated media and avatars. So a long recording uses hours even if you only edit a short part of it, and a heavy AI feature can use credits faster than hours.
What each plan adds, per the page
- Hobbyist: Underlord access, Studio Sound, Remove Filler Words, Create Clips, and AI Speech with custom voice clones.
- Creator: full Underlord and 20+ more AI tools, video generation with current AI models, unlimited royalty-free stock library, and paid top-ups for hours and credits.
- Business: Brand Studio access, translation and dubbing in 30+ languages, custom avatars from a photo or text, priority support with an SLA.
- Enterprise: custom hours and credits, SSO, SCIM, audit logs, SOC 2 Type II and custom retention.
Who it suits, who should skip
- Suits podcasters and talking-head video makers who want to cut from a transcript; see transcription and voice tools.
- Skip if you need meeting notes, not editing: compare Otter, Fireflies and Descript, which shows the limit each rations first.
- Skip if you mostly clean up audio: Adobe Podcast covers speech enhancement.
- Skip for complex timelines: the page does not claim a full professional editor’s feature set.
What this page cannot tell you
Transcription accuracy, voice-clone quality and how it handles accents or noise are not on the pricing page, and we have not assessed them. Earlier text quoted an accuracy range we could not source and removed it.
Method
Researched from Descript’s pricing page, read 29 Sep 2026 in a browser session with the monthly and annual toggles both read. Nothing here comes from using the product.